particularly from the obama campaign, lashing out at him for not mentioning the troops that are in iraq. now, the romney campaign has pushed back and said that the candidates met with the american legion on wednesday, just a day before his speech. the other big speech from the republican national convention, you've been talking about it already this morning, lester, of course that speech that was given by 82-year-old acting icon clint eastwood, when he gave a performance, essentially interviewing an empty chair that was meant to represent president obama. a lot of people called that performance bizarre, but the romney campaign defended it yesterday. they said the fact that he brought up the high unemployment rate, the fact that he called for a change in leadership made the speech worthwhile. and lester, they also said that the candidate himself felt that the speech was amusing. right now, political analysts watching to see if romney will get any type of a bump on the heels of the rnc. lester? >> kristen welker, thank you so much. ed rendell is the former chairman of the democratic natio